Nationality British Name Otto Overbeck | Died 1937 | |
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Full Name Otto Christop Joseph Gerhardt Ludwig Overbeck Occupation Brewer, Inventor, Scientist Known for Inventions, the Overbeck Rejuvenator, Overbeck's | ||
Otto Overbeck (1860–1937) was a British chemist and prominent advocate of electrotherapy in the early twentieth century.
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Life
Overbeck was educated at University College London, where he studied Chemistry. He worked initially as the scientific director of a brewery in Grimsby. An example of his electrotherapy device, the Overbeck Rejuvenator, is held by the Thackray Museum.
"Electric health"
Overbeck patented aspects of the Rejuvenator in many countries during the late 1920s, and marketed it. He also proposed a "theory of electric health", which he advocated in A New Electronic Theory of Life (1925). In this book, Overbeck linked all manner of ailments with an imbalance of electricity. Restoring the natural balance of the electric body, Overbeck argued, could overcome all illness apart from those caused by germs or deformity.
The Rejuvenator was not an electric "shock" device in the traditional sense; rather, it made use of very small, harmless, levels of electric current, which were applied to affected areas on the body by means of intricately shaped electrodes. In a later book, The New Light, published in 1936, Overbeck argued that the universal force of electricity made religion obsolete. The universe instead operated under a "Deistic electronic law", which governed everything from atomic forces to the motions of the heavenly bodies.
Overbeck amassed wealth from sales of the Rejuvenator. After his death, two friends established the Overbeck Rejuvenator Company, which continued to supply replacement parts for Rejuvenators until the mid-1950s.
Legacy
In his latter years, Overbeck lived in a palatial house in Sharpitor, Salcombe, Devon, now known as Overbeck's. He left it to the National Trust. Here he collected all manner of natural historical artefacts, and gathered specimens of tropical plants from across the world, opening the gardens to the public.